New York, Washington Wooden spoons, shorts and shirts in rainbow colors – the American department store chain Target celebrates “Pride Month” in June, in which the LGBTQIA community demands and celebrates their rights and freedoms. Target goes further than other companies. In addition to the colorful designs, there are also mugs with the imprint “Ask me about my pronouns” – ask me about my pronouns. Or greetings cards to the “Chosen Family”, i.e. the family of choice apart from a classic father-mother-child constellation.
However, the group no longer feels like celebrating. Target recently lost around $10 billion in market value right after its “Pride” line of products sparked controversy on social media.
The seventh largest retailer in the USA found itself in the midst of the American culture war over gender roles. The controversy over the rights of trans people is getting a lot of attention due to the Republican primary for the US presidency.
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley called for trans athletes not to participate in women’s and girls’ sports. Former President Donald Trump has branded gender reassignment surgery on minors as “sexual mutilation of children” and announced that he wants to ban the surgery from the White House.
“The left gender lunacy is an act of child abuse, it must stop immediately,” he said. Presidential candidate Vivik Ramaswamy even accused Target of “spitting in the face” of its regular customers.
Target is partially withdrawing Pride products
It is becoming increasingly difficult for some US companies to navigate the heated situation. Target eventually withdrew parts of its “Pride” collection. Products by trans designer Erik Carnell were affected. He has been accused on social media of being a Satanist for designing an amulet with a goat’s head that reads, “Satan respects pronouns.” While these amulets are not available for purchase from Target, conservative media and bloggers have railed against Target, accusing the company of working with a satanic partner.
>> Read here: Beyond the rainbow: Everyone can benefit from more diversity
Some branches have “received threats that affect our members’ sense of security and their well-being at work,” the group said.
Boycotts continue to be called for on social media because many Pride products are also available in the children’s departments. The range includes books for children aged two to eight with titles such as “Bye Bye, Binary”, “Pride 1,2,3”, “I’m not a girl” and “Be proud and loud”. Children’s shirts bear inscriptions such as “Trans people will always exist” and “Girls Gays Theys” – the latter an allusion to the nonbinary pronoun “they” used in English.
There has been a particular uproar over a supposedly “tuck-friendly” children’s swimsuit that features extra fabric in the crotch area. This could allow trans girls who have not had sex reassignment surgery to hide their private parts.
In reality, US media such as AP clarified that the bathing suit was for adults and not for children – but the rumor spread quickly. The rap “Why Is #Target Targeting Our Kids?” got tens of thousands of likes on Twitter and conquered the iTunes charts.
Target’s share price has fallen more than 14 percent in the past two weeks. This was primarily due to the rather disappointing quarterly figures. Unlike Walmart, for example, Target was hardly able to increase its sales in the first quarter. But on top of that came the protests against the Pride collection and the company’s backtracking.
According to Evercore ISI analyst Greg Melich, this did additional damage to the company. “It’s difficult to grow sales when a significant portion of the customer base has decided not to come back,” he says. Those customers who find the products attractive are “not able to compensate for this loss”.
The group withdrew some of the goods after the criticism.
(Photo: AP)
Still, the analyst doesn’t think Target will be hit as badly as beer company Anheuser Busch, whose share price fell 18 percent in April. Bud Light beer brand sponsored trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney in a video that drew the ire of many Americans.
Beer sales fell and the company didn’t clearly position itself behind the community afterwards. “We never wanted to be part of a discussion that divides people,” said CEO Brendan Whitworth. “Our business is bringing people together over a beer.”
US President Biden: “Ruthless attacks”
According to Pew Research, 1.6 percent of US adults identify as trans or non-binary, meaning neither male nor female. For young adults under the age of 30, the proportion is five percent.
At the same time, trans people are increasingly visible on social media, in pop culture, and in marketing campaigns — and viewed as the enemy by some US Republicans. “The rights of LGBTQIA Americans are under relentless attack,” US President Joe Biden said last week. “These ruthless attacks have left countless LGBTQIA families in fear and pain.”
The Biden government has repeatedly demonstratively supported trans people.
(Photo: IMAGO/ZUMA Wire)
He didn’t just mean acts of violence against trans people, which have increased in recent years. But also the wealth of political initiatives in Republican-ruled US states, where dozens of anti-trans laws have been introduced, sex reassignment surgeries under 18 are banned in at least four states. In Texas, puberty blockers and hormone treatments for trans children will soon be criminalized.
“The left wants to tell us that men can get pregnant. That people are born racist. They want to attack our values, but we are stronger,” said Ron DeSantis, Florida governor and presidential candidate, during a campaign appearance.
The candidate for the Republican presidential candidacy is already stirring up opposition to the queer community in his role as governor of Florida.
(Photo: IMAGO/ZUMA Wire)
DeSantis’ campaign against the Disney group also represents the culture war over trans rights, which is dividing society and politics. In 2021, Disney sharply criticized a controversial Florida law that restricts school teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity. DeSantis then took action against Disney and has since been sued by the company.
Republicans criticize “Wokeness”
Much like presidential candidate Ramaswamy, who landed a bestseller with his book Woke Inc., DeSantis has denounced socially oriented investing, known in business jargon as environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing. “Wokeness,” Ramaswamy said of the Target controversy, is “bad for businesses and society at large in the long run.” Political positions, he argues, have no place in the business world.
He and other Republicans accuse US companies of only donating to LGBTQIA associations to move up the so-called Corporate Equality Index (CEI) – and in turn to attract ESG investors. The index is compiled by the Human Rights Campaign, the largest political lobby group for queer rights. According to Forbes, Walmart and Target regularly top the rankings.
The term “woke” means that people are aware of prejudices such as racism or sexism. In the public discourse, “wokeness” is now used as a swear word in some circles. Left-wing and progressive actors, critics say, overdo it with tolerance and anti-discrimination efforts and impose their worldview on society as a whole.
According to the opinion research institute Pew Research, the mood in the population is not clearly pro- or anti-trans. In a comprehensive study, the vast majority of Americans, around eight out of ten, spoke out in favor of protecting trans people from discrimination.
At the same time, 60 percent of respondents said a person’s gender is the sex assigned at birth — up 6 percent from a 2017 survey. Also, a vast majority of Americans oppose gender reassignment surgery on underage people.
The attitude among young people is quite different: half of those under 30 think that everyone should identify with the gender of their choice. Pew Research found a “public ambivalence” in dealing with trans people, which varies greatly between age groups, political orientation and ethnicity. The debate about the rights of trans people is far from over – and the US corporations are right in the middle.
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